Traditional hand-sewn sports balls have several drawbacks related to loosened or exposed stitching, water absorption, inconsistent performance characteristics, low production efficiency, and generally high labor and production cost. Labor costs for hand-sewn sports balls are very high, and constantly increasing every year. Early footballs and soccer were made of leather and sewn up or closed with laces. These days, footballs are made from synthetic leather patches sewn together in a design based on the ‘Buckminster Ball’ or known as the Buckyball. The American architect Richard Buckminster Fuller came up with the design when he was trying to find a way for constructing buildings using a minimum of materials. The shape is a series of hexagons, pentagons and triangles, which can be fitted together to make a round surface. The modern soccer ball is essentially a Buckminster Ball consisting of 20 hexagonal and 12 pentagonal surfaces. When they are sewn together and inflated they make a near perfect sphere. The darker spots on the ball will help players perceive any swerve on the ball. The typical soccer ball today is spherical in shape with a circumference of between 68 and 70 centimeters (27 and 28 in), a weight in the range of 410 to 450 grams (14 to 16 oz.), and a pressure of between 0.6 and 1.1 bars (8.5 and 15.6 psi) at sea level. In the past soccer balls were made up of leather panels sewn together, with a latex bladder for pressurization, but more recently, modern balls at all levels of the game are now made of synthetic materials. The first 32-panel ball was marketed by Select in the 1950s in Denmark. The first “official” FIFA world cup soccer ball was the Adidas Telstar used in the 1970 world cup at Mexico. It was also the first official World Cup Buckminster type soccer ball. Today there is a shortage of trained and experienced sewers to perform the hand-sewing of sports balls, including soccer balls which tends to increase the stitching cost involved in making hand-sewn sports balls. Long manufacturing times are required for hand-sewn sports balls; typical production times may be four to six weeks. Current processes in manufacturing hand-sewn sports balls often results in a lot of waste of materials. The stitching of hand sewn sports balls can easily become loose (exposed) which give the sports balls poor durability in terms of weak abrasion resistance, and high water absorption that can make a sports balls heavier than desired or permissible.